Could the Bruins trade Thomas>

The brass may feel Tuukka Rask is ready to be anointed the No. 1 goalie. He certainly has done his job well — and maintained a remarkably positive and cheerful attitude.

And it is quite likely there will be NHL teams that could manage Thomas’ $5 million cap hit and $3 million paycheck, and would view the two-time Vezina Trophy winner as the guy who could make them a playoff, or even Stanley Cup, contender.

What might such a player bring the Bruins in a trade? Maybe a good, young player? A first-round pick? Who knows? That would likely depend on how well Thomas plays during the next 3-5 months. The added benefit for the B’s would be a sizable chunk of cap space to re-sign their own free agents, or shop the free agent market.

If there is lasting enmity toward Thomas in the offices either on Causeway Street or in Buffalo, how could the B’s not explore saying goodbye to one of their best and most popular players? These are the types of deals by which championship teams remain championship teams.

Now assuming that everything else after the Kessel trade would have happened anyway (we still get Phaneuf/Aulie/Lupul/Gardiner/Franson, and still finish with the 2nd overall pick (Seguin) and 9th overall pick (Hamilton), and Boston drafted Kadri and won the cup in 2011 ) It looks really close. I mean if we still got everyone I said above after the Kaberle + 7th overall pick for Kessel trade AND we trade our 2012 2nd for Liles then yes the Kaberle/Kessel deal would be better but I'm happy with the way things went, Kessel is easily worth the price we paid.

yeah who knows where we would finish, who would we trade for and who would we sign if we lost Kaberle from our 2009-2010 roster. I think the question should be posed like this:

If you are the Leafs, would you do this trade:

LilesKadriColborneBiggs

for:

SeguinHamiltonKnight

kind of a tough call. Personally I would do it because I am a huge fan of Seguin's game and I think he would fit nicely with Kessel and Lupul but that being said I'm ok with our guys.

Biggs > KnightLiles > Hamilton (although Hamilton should end up being the better defenseman and his youth makes him so much more valuable)Kadri & Colborne < Seguin (right now, easily Seguin is better, maybe in 2-5 years that will change though. If Colborne and Kadri become 1A and 1B then maybe they have more value than Seguin.)

Anyway you look at it, it is close, and definitely fun to talk about and debate.

I would take what we have now, only because, it may not have turned out to be those playes. All the dynamics out side of Kabs & 7th for Kessel would have been different. Not to mention if Kadri was put in the saviour type spotlight what would have been done to Seguin? Sometimes that pressure makes a player wilt instead of blossom.